Thibaut Courtois in Barcelona’s crosshairs to replace Valdés

Since Victor Valdes announced he is leaving the club in 2014, Barcelona has stepped up a gear in order to sign a replacement. It is no surprise therefore that the Catalan club has made it their goal to sign Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. However, it may provide to be a very difficult operation because although he plays for Atletico, he is owned by Chelsea and is under contract until 2016.

Positive contact

Barcelona have already sounded out Thibaut Courtois and has made contact with his representatives. The response has been positive and would welcome him signing for Barcelona. Chelsea are currently trying to renew the player’s contract, but Courtois is stalling, apparently aware of the interest from Barcelona.

Ter Stegen

The first objective set Barcelona by Barca was Ter Stegen. With him there is already a verbal agreement with Barcelona to wait until end of season. The goalkeeper has turned down the offer of a renewal that his club Borussia Monchengladbach proposed a few days ago.

However, Barcelona know that the signing of Ter Stegen is somewhat risky as he’s a goalkeeper that does not offer the guarantees of Courtois, who has spent two years performing at a high level at Atletico Madrid despite his youth. So Barca are looking at the possibility of incorporating him into their ranks.

Courtois or Ter Stegen, not both

Barcelona has the idea of continuing with the same schema in goal that has given them very good results in recent seasons. That is, no two goalkeepers will be competing for the number 1 shirt. The club will sign a goalkeeper who will be the team’s first choice with a substitute goalkeeper as backup, as in case of José Manuel Pinto.

For this reason, either Courtois or Ter Stegen will be signed. The Catalan giants believe that these two are holders of a first team place and should not compete with each other.

Two goalkeepers to be signed next season

The idea of the Catalan club is to sign two goalkeepers with the aforementioned characteristics, a first team regular and a substitute. Although there are still many months to go, the idea is that Pinto doesn’t renew his contract as the goalkeeper will be 38 next November.

Barca’s technical staff considers that it is now time to bring in another goalkeeper to play the role of Victor Valdes’ substitute, accepting this secondary role without creating any problems.

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